THE EFFECT OF MICRO-SILICA ON THE MICROSCOPIC FEATURES OF THE UHPC COMPOSITE AND ITS INTER-FACIAL TRANSITION ZONE

Abstract

The uplift of concrete overall macroscopic performance by way of alternative additives is commonly used technique. In case of ultra high performance concrete (UHPC), micro-silica is added to the mixture as a micro-filler to the structure of cement binder. As a result, the cementitious matrix macro-mechanical performance is elevated. This paper is aimed on the UHPC micro-scale enhancement by different micro-silica additive content in the mixture. More closely, the study investigate the impact of the micro-silica on the inter-facial transition zone (ITZ) between the binder matrix and basaltic aggregate.

Keywords

• high performance concrete, indentation, spectral deconvolution SEM,image analysis, ITZ